Improvements in Iraq

I hesitate to say more than I am allowed for fear of "opsec" (operational secrecy) violations; thus, I prefer to pass on information which is true to my experience and yet publicly available:

As I have said before, things are going very well in Iraq, especially in the Anbar Province.

http://www.csis.org/media/csis/pubs/080227_violence.in.iraq.pdf

However, as we say here before every mission: "Complacancy Kills"

and it does.

This article talks about an "irreducible minimum" meaning there is a point when you have beat back Al Qaeda to a point where you can't eradicate them, yet you can't reduce their numbers at all. This means that there will always be a risk for an IED attack here or there and you can never rest. However, it is not the norm, nor is it incessant.